In this post I’ll go through all the procedures the various documents needed pre-departure, during transit and upon arrival at Melbourne.
Note: This is based on my experience and may not reflect what occurs during your trip. Quarantine/isolation and testing requirements do change based on the COVID situation and it is advised that you check the Victorian Government website for the latest updates before your flight.
In order to utilize the VTL there are several documents which need to be prepared. It is highly recommended that these documents be printed out.
At check in we were asked to present physical proof of our vaccine certificate and the negative pre-departure PCR test. Everything else occurs as per usual
Upon boarding the flight we were also given an Australian Travel Declaration Card to declare any items being brought into the country.
Within 24 hours of arrival we were required to either take a PCR or take a RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) test and isolate until we returned a negative result.
Another PCR/RAT test is required to be taken between days 5 and 7 of arrival.
Currently RAT kits are sold out in all chemists and pharmacists in Melbourne. I would highly recommend bringing your own kits from Singapore in order to avoid the hassle.
While PCR tests in Melbourne are free the current surge of omicron has resulted in large waves of people lining outside testing sites waiting to get tested. It takes 3-4 hours of waiting in line before even setting foot inside the testing center.
If you are required to take a PCR Test my suggestion would be to queue up at your nearest testing site before open hours.
The last thing that needs to be done after arriving is setting up the Service Victoria App.
Melbourne’s TraceTogether App. It allows you to check in at stores and acts as proof of your vaccination status. In order to set it up you need to have your vaccine certificate uploaded.
As international students we don’t have access to Medicare so we had to upload our COVID-19 certificates using the Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI).
The quickest way to get an IHI is online through your myGov account. If you don’t have an account, it’s easy to create one.
After creating your myGov account follow these steps to get an IHI online:
After getting our IHI we needed to find a pharmacist/chemist/GP who was able to upload our Vaccination Certificates onto the IHI.
Any place which does vaccinations should be able to upload the certificates. For us we chose to go to the Chemist Warehouse on Elizabeth Street where we paid a $10 service fee for the upload.
We were required to present: